Ask Governor Herbert to protect clean air in our state and beyond

Originally posted on Action Utah. To see the original post, click here.

Last week, Donald Trump continued his assault on stewardship and clean air protections by signing an executive order to gut the Clean Power Plan. The Clean Power Plan was designed as a commonsense way for the U.S. to reduce harmful pollution from power plants and encourage the development of clean energy. Doing away with the Clean Power Plan will harm American’s health and economy and only benefits corporate polluters. If Trump and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt get their way, American families will pay the price.

Why are Trump and Pruitt against the Clean Power Plan? They say they are opposed because environmental regulation is a “war on coal”. The problem with that argument is that there has never actually been a war on coal. The coal industry has been declining for nearly a century — long before environmental regulation came about — due to the rise of cheaper and safer forms of energy. In recent times, fracking has been the leading cause of coal’s downfall by driving down the prices of natural gas. Remember, the Clean Power Plan hasn’t even gone into effect yet, so it has had no impact at all on steadily declining numbers of coal industry jobs, nor on the steadily rising numbers of renewable energy jobs, which now number more than double U.S. coal industry jobs.

If fully implemented, the Clean Power Plan would have substantial public health and economic benefits, including:

Preventing 90,000 asthma attacks each year;

Saving 3,600 lives and preventing 1,700 heart attacks each year;

Reaping up to $34 billion in health benefits from reduced exposure to fine particulates and ozone pollution;

Saving Americans $155 billion on their energy bills.

Accelerating the transition to clean energy will also create up to two million jobs by 2050 — that’s 10 times the number of people who work in oil & gas extraction and about 22 times the number of people working in the coal industry.

Utah can help achieve these things without the Clean Power Plan if we ask Governor Herbert to join the Under2 Coalition.

What is the Under2 Coalition? It is a diverse group of governments around the world who are doing their part to meet the emissions reduction goals outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement — including ten U.S. states. By joining the coalition, UT can help achieve similar outcomes as the Clean Power Plan.